


Pawdon Me

by flumpberry



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Animal Shelter AU, Fluff, M/M, Meeting for the first time, not childhood friends in this fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-24
Updated: 2016-04-24
Packaged: 2018-06-04 07:08:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6647371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flumpberry/pseuds/flumpberry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kuroo comes to the animal shelter to pick the perfect cat. Through use of judicious cat puns, he is able to pick up Kenma as well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pawdon Me

**Author's Note:**

> This is a gift fic for @yamazsaki/oktobio/hkqs (changed usernames over the course of this event) as part of the HKQnet Gift Exchange. And of course, I'm submitting it on the last day possible.

“You should have been the first one adopted,” Kenma whispered, scratching behind the ears of the cat. “Maybe someone will come for you today?” She looked at him and gave him a slow, trusting blink. He smiled helplessly, stroking under her chin. She purred louder and rolled onto her back, exposing her white belly. 

She was his favorite from the first day he began volunteering. It was her strange coloration that caught his eye initially. She was a black-and-white tuxedo, there was no doubt, but unlike other tuxedos the whites of her fur bled into the black, creating streaks of white dispersed across her body. Not to mention she had gorgeous yellow eyes that tilted towards in such a way that reminded Kenma of an owl. 

Through the 6 months he had been volunteering at this animal rescue, there had been many adoptions for their various cats. But no one had come for her yet, despite her friendly nature. Kenma thought it might be because of her looks, which threw a lot of people off. Some of the other volunteers said it was because of her name. This made Kenma defensive since he had been the one to name her.

“Oho, and who is this pretty lady?” a voice asked from behind him. 

Kenma turned to see a tall boy leaning over him, uncomfortably close. Kenma froze and withdrew his hands from the cage. The cat meowed in complaint when Kenma slowly closed the cage, stepping back from the other boy to put space between them. 

“Sorry, I didn’t see you there,” he mumbled, looking for some other volunteer to foist this customer on. However, everyone seemed to be on lunch break and Kenma was the only one left. 

“Did I startle you? I’m very sorry,” the other boy drawled.

Kenma watched as the boy strolled down the line of cages, peering at the cats and occasionally sticking his fingers in to pet the ones that pressed up against the bars. Then the boy looked at Kenma expectantly.

“Um,” Kenma said, taken aback. He tried to remember what the other volunteers usually said to people who came in for adoptions. “Do you need help?”

The other boy looked at him with an inscrutable expression. Kenma shuffled uneasily, glancing up at the other boy to see what he wanted. Suddenly the other boy smiled. “I’m here to adopt a cat.”

“Obviously,” Kenma said without thinking. He slapped his hand over his mouth, blushing at the rude remark. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s alright,” the boy waved off the comment. Then he paused, staring at Kenma whose face was still flushed red. Kenma tilted his head in confusion and blinked. He peered up at the other boy through his eyelashes. The other boy continued to stand there silently, his mouth gaping slightly open. The boy cleared his throat, running his hand through his messy hair. “So what’s your name?”

“…Kenma,” he replied slowly. “Kozume Kenma.”

“Nice to meet you, Kenma!” the boy exclaimed. He stuck out his hand. “I’m Kuroo Tetsurou.”

Kenma nodded, shaking the hand briefly. Kuroo clung to his hand when Kenma tried to drop it. “Um…” Kenma said hesitantly. “Could I have my hand back?”

“Sorry!” Kuroo said too loudly, realizing what he was doing. He released Kenma’s hand, blushing. “Your skin is really soft.”

Kenma gave him a strange look. “…Thanks I guess.”

Looking mortified at what he had just said, Kuroo turned back towards the cats, peering at the tiny kittens who were trying to catch his attention. After a while of petting the kittens, he asked, “So how does this work? I just look around?”

“Yeah,” Kenma mumbled. He hesitated, and then continued, “And if you need any help, I can answer your questions.”

Kuroo nodded and then made his way down the row of cages. They had a full house today, with all of the cages filled up with cats. The animals only stayed at the shelter over the weekends. During the other days of the week, they stayed in with foster parents in their houses. Kenma really liked this system. He didn’t want to think of his favorite trapped in a small cage 24/7. At least she only had to be here for a few days a week. 

The room was silence as Kuroo observed all of the cats. He seemed to have gotten over his previous embarrassment, a confident smirk plastered on his face again. He pointed at the cat on the far side of the row. “I have a question about that one.”

“Champion?” Kenma asked, peering into the cage. “What about him?”

“Well, someone must have thought very highly of him, giving him such a strong name, right? I wouldn’t do that for just any cat.”

“I suppose so,” Kenma replied slowly.

Kuroo continued, smirking. “So based on that, I would say that the owner thought this cat was quite pawsome.”

Kenma stared at him blankly. “What.”

Kuroo winked. “You heard me.”

With a sigh, Kenma decided to just ignore him. “So what kind of cat are you looking for?” he asked tiredly. “Old, young? Any particular color?”

Kuroo shrugged. “No, I think the right cat will just strike me.”

“I’m not sure that’s the way to pick out your new pet,” Kenma said disapprovingly. “This isn’t a light decision, you know. Cats can live for more than a decade so finding the right cat for your lifestyle is very important.”

With a growing smirk, Kuroo replied, “Well with that catitude I won’t.”

“You have to be kidding me…” Kenma muttered exasperated.

“Don’t you mean kitten you?” Kuroo interjected with a grin. He wiggled his eyebrows. “Get it?”

“Are you even serious about getting a cat?” Kenma finally exploded. “Because if you’re just here as a joke…”

“No, sorry,” Kuroo quickly apologized, holding out his hands in front of him as if to placate him. “I really am here to adopt a cat. I’ve been thinking about this for a while and my parents finally approved. I was thinking of getting a middle-aged to older cat because I’m going to be in school for the next few years and won’t have much time to spend with it.”

Kenma was glad that Kuroo seemed to be taking this seriously. “You’ll have to fill out an adoption application at the front desk when you find one you like, but that’s just a formality. You should be able to take home the cat today. The cats to your right are older. Some of them are rescues; others were found in abandoned homes after their owners left or died.”

“How sad,” Kuroo murmured, bending down to greet one of their older cats. He stroked her back when she pushed against the cage, smiling when she began to purr. 

Kenma was starting to feel bad for yelling at him before. Though he came across as flippant, Kenma could see that Kuroo was quite serious about being a pet owner. The cats loved him too. Even the more reticent ones allowed him to pet them without even a hiss. 

“Since you like cat puns so much,” Kenma began hesitantly, extending an olive branch, “you should check out this one. She’s very friendly, though a bit on the older side.” He pointed towards his favorite, who was in the cage on the far right of the room. 

Kuroo smiled at him, making Kenma’s heart skip a beat in his chest. Now that he thought about it, Kuroo was quite handsome, even with his disheveled hair. Kenma always believed that cats could see who was a good person, so the fact that all of the cats here liked him only made him more attractive in Kenma’s eyes. 

“Ohoho?” Kuroo murmured, sticking his finger into the cage for the cat to sniff. “You are an unusual one, aren’t you?”

“She might look strange, but she’s very nice,” Kenma defended her. 

“She reminds me of my friend,” Kuroo said, grinning at Kenma. Then he looked at her name tag and his eyes widened. “She’s perfect.”

“Don’t you mean purrfect?” Kenma muttered to himself.

Kuroo heard him and let out a loud laugh, startling some of the cats nearby. “Do you know who named her?”

“I did,” Kenma admitted softly. “Other people thought it was too nerdy.”

Kuroo grinned widely. “Not for me.” He stood up decidedly. “I’ll take her.”

Kenma looked at him in disbelief. “Don’t you want to know more about her?”

“Weren’t you the one who suggested her to me? You said she was very friendly, I love her name, and she looks like one of my best friends. It must be fate.”

Kenma hesitated, looking down at the cat. Kuroo seemed to be a nice person and would be a wonderful owner for her. Kenma had been hoping that she would be adopted since the first day he volunteered, but now that the opportunity was here, he found himself reluctant to part with her. 

As if reading his thoughts, Kuroo spoke. “You can come visit her, if you want. You go to Nekoma, right? I think I’ve seen you around.”

“You go to Nekoma?”

Kuroo nodded. “I’m a third year. I live not too far away from the school. You could pop by after class whenever you want if I adopted her.”

Kenma bit at his bottom lip, toying with it between his teeth. This all sounded too perfect to be true. He found an owner for his favorite cat, said owner turned out to be an attractive boy, and then the boy invited him over to his house to see her whenever he wanted. There had to be a catch.

“Why are you being so nice?” Kenma finally asked.

“I’m always this nice,” Kuroo replied with a laugh. Then he turned serious, leaning in towards Kenma. “But you’re right, there is a catch.”

Kenma tensed up. Here it was. Kuroo was probably going to ask something ridiculous from him, like for him to pay the ten thousand yen that it cost to adopt her. Kenma didn’t have that kind of money on him, but he did want her to be adopted. He began to fret and wring his hands uneasily.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you nervous,” Kuroo apologized suddenly. 

Kenma’s eyes widened imperceptibly. For most people, it was difficult to read Kenma because he appeared to be very expressionless. Kuroo didn’t seem to have a problem with this, though. “I’m not nervous,” Kenma denied.

Kuroo nodded complacently. “Even so, I wasn’t going to ask for anything bad, I promise.”

Kenma felt his body relax at the words. It was strange, he felt unusually comfortable with Kuroo. When he interacted with most people, he was never this calm about it. There was something about Kuroo that instinctively made him trust him.

“What did you want to ask me then?” Kenma asked.

Kuroo laughed sheepishly, pulling out his cell phone. “I actually wanted to ask for your number. And maybe I could see you again? I mean, outside of you coming to visit the cat. If that’s alright with you, that is.”

Surprised, Kenma started to laugh softly at the awkward invitation. For someone who seemed so smooth and confident, that confession had been the opposite. Kuroo’s face slowly turned red and he looked away embarrassed. Kenma held out his hand. “That sounds like fun,” he said with a small smile.

Kuroo’s face turned even redder. “G-great!” he stuttered as Kenma inputted his phone number. “So it’s a date?”

Kenma nodded, smiling at him. “It’s a date. Text me when you want to go out.”

“Will do!” Kuroo exclaimed. He turned to go to the front desk to fill out the adoption forms, and then paused. “Just out of curiosity, why did you choose that for her name?”

Kenma hummed thoughtfully. “I don’t know. It just came to me, I guess. When I met her, I felt like she would be the spark that would change my life. A Catalyst, if you will.”

“So not for the pun then?” Kuroo asked, looking at the name tag. 

Kenma looked at the tag as well, smiling fondly at the little chemistry beakers he put next to her name when he made the sign. “Maybe a bit for the pun too,” he admitted.

Catalyst meowed, seemingly knowing that something important had just happened. Kenma bent down, stroking her head between the bars. She purred happily, closing her eyes in contentment. 

“I think your feeling was right,” Kuroo said. “Not to be arrogant or anything.”

Kenma laughed at that. Kuroo looked happy that he made Kenma laugh, striding out the door. Before he exited, he paused and turned around. “I’ll… see you around I guess?”

Kenma pretended to consider this. “Well, I do want to visit Catalyst, so I guess so.” 

“I hope you’re not just using me for the cat,” Kuroo teased.

Kenma bit his lip. “No,” he mumbled, looking down at the ground. “You… make me feel comfortable. That’s not something I feel around people very often.”

Kuroo gazed down at him warmly, smiling. “Well I’m glad,” he said softly. He reached up to brush away a strand of hair from Kenma’s cheek. 

Kenma felt his heart begin to pound in his chest from the proximity. He began to blush, looking up at Kuroo shyly. 

Kuroo bent down so his mouth was right next to Kenma’s ear. Then he murmured right into Kenma’s ear, so close that Kenma could feel his warm breath. “I’ll be in touch,” Kuroo said softly, and then he stood up and sauntered out of the door.

“Yeah…” Kenma murmured, watching Kuroo leave. He stood there for a long time in the silent room, staring at the door. Then one of the kittens pounced on a toy, knocking over its food tray. The noise startled Kenma out of his daze, reminding him where he was. 

“Well,” Kenma said, bending over to talk to Catalyst. “You’re adopted. Congratulations.”

Catalyst pressed against his hand, asking to be petted. Kenma obliged, stroking down the side of her chin gently. “You lived up to your name, huh? It turns out you really were here to change my life. I have a good feeling about Kuroo-san… I guess we’ll see where it goes.”

She purred and he smiled, leaning against the crate. When he woke up this morning, he never thought he would end up with a date. He felt his heart skip in his chest when he thought of Kuroo’s smile. His phone buzzed, indicating a new text message. It was a new number.

Konnichi-paw, was the only thing the text said. 

Kenma made a face but reluctantly laughed. This was definitely going to be the start of something interesting.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this fic based on a real cat at the animal shelter I volunteer in. She had been at the shelter for a few months and I thought it was strange that she hadn't been adopted because she was so friendly. So I was really surprised when, the weekend after I finished this fic, someone finally came in to adopt her! So yay, Catalyst gets a happy ending both in this fic and in real life!


End file.
